Went through a fairly long phase of hangun hunting to supplement my archery tactics (getting close) as back in the dark ages (when I was young) seeing 50 or so deer pretty much every outing was common so rifle hunting, while great for just getting meat, was a bit of a bore. Back when I started doing it, .44mag was still a fairly new cartridge and me and the old man decided to give the S&W model 29 a spin. Now the old man was a HUGE Colt fan as was I so this was a bit of a step for him. He also loved Rugers but he didn't know about the Ruger Blackhawk that Sturm had put out. I dropped many deer with that old 29 and quite a number of hogs over the years. After about 3 or 4 years I ran across the Blackhawk and fell absolutely in love with both the feel as well as the design so I bought 2!! One for the old man and one for me. Still have them both. Now with old man eyes I have to glass all my hunting rigs since irons are just too fuzzy to shoot accurately anymore. Kinda takes the intent of getting close out of the mix since with glass a 100 yard shot is pretty easy with my .44mags, .454cas, .500S&W's I just don't do it all that much anymore. Gettin old sucks!!